Deborah L. Boughton
Alignment with State of Connecticut Standards
for Language Arts Education in Grades 9-12
Standard 1: Fostering Reading Comprehension
The guiding question of this strand is: How do we understand what we read? The Visual Thinking Strategies used throughout the unit make the process of comprehension and interpretation visible for students. As students communicate with others to make sense of written visual texts, they make observations and develop inferences from explicit and or implicit information in the text. They respond to the ideas of others and recognize the validity of differing views. Finally they practice making claims about the reading and substantiating them with evidence from the text.
Standard 2: Teaching Students to Appreciate, Analyze and Interpret Text
The guiding question of this strand is: How does literature enrich our lives? This strand builds on the first, asking students to respond to texts in increasingly sophisticated ways. The activities in this unit are designed to make students more sensitive to the author's/artist's purpose and the author's /artist's craft. By examining pieces from a wide range of social, cultural and historical contexts, students will recognize that human beings across times and cultures have shared and do share, common experiences. At the same time they will recognize that readers and authors are influenced by their individual, social, cultural and historical contexts.
Standard 3: Teaching Students to Communicate Effectively
The guiding question of this strand is: How do we write, speak and present effectively?
Throughout the unit students will practice presenting their ideas convincingly to peers. Whether students are presenting their argument visually, orally or in writing they will focus on showing their audience specifically why their claims make sense. Students will challenge each other to clarify their thinking and substantiate their claims with evidence.
Standard 4: Teaching Students to Apply English Language Conventions
The guiding question of this strand is: How do we use the English language appropriately to speak and write? As they read and produce texts, students will become increasingly aware of audience and purpose. They will recognize that the diction and language structures appropriate for one piece may not work in another.